The mysterious PRESIDENT have made their debut at Download 2025 – here’s everything we know about the
- READ MORE: Charlie Simpson talks new role in ‘The War of the Worlds’ and the future of Fightstar and Busted
Fans were left puzzled when the band first appeared on the line-up earlier in February. At the time, PRESIDENT had no music released and no details about who the members are.
Since then, the band have released two songs on streaming platforms. Following a teaser in April, debut single ‘In The Name Of The Father’ arrived in May, with follow-up ‘Fearless’ landing in June.
Now, PRESIDENT have officially made their debut at Download Festival. The band played five songs total, including the two songs they’ve already released. They also played three new songs by the name of ‘Dionysus’, ‘Rage’, and ‘Destroy Me’ (via Setlist.fm).
PRESIDENT’s appearance at Download has left fans convinced that the frontman is Charlie Simpson. Following early speculation that the Busted and Fightstar musician might be part of the project, fans are now “10000% convinced” without “any doubt” that it’s Simpson. “What a debut!”, one fan commented, whilst another said: “Well PRESIDENT certainly is something to look forward to after that performance.”
In the meantime, watch PRESIDENT’s debut set at Download Festival below:
@thatblokealex @PRESIDENT @Download Festival is it Charlie Simpson? #2025 #entertainment #fyp #blog #presidentband #summer #blog #concerts #gig #festival #download #mystery #trending #music #rock #hype
♬ original sound – Alex
@feeding_me_in_the_dark President – Destroy Me @PRESIDENT @Download Festival #sleeptoken #worship
♬ original sound – Feeding-Me-In-The-Dark
For those who missed PRESIDENT at Download, they’re also soon to play The Garage in London on July 30. Tickets for the gig have now sold out.
This year’s Download saw Green Day, Sleep Token and KoRn headline the Donington Park festival last weekend (June 13-15). It was Green Day’s debut appearance at Download as well – and the band certainly made an impression by hitting out at President Trump and Elon Musk during their set.
Tweaking an ‘American Idiot’ lyric to proclaim that he wasn’t “part of the Elon agenda”, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong also called Trump a “fat bastard”, further telling the crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are slipping into fascism… it’s up to us to fight back!”
We also previously spoke to Charlie Simpson at the end of 2024 about his role in Jeff Wayne’s musical adaption of The War Of The Worlds.
Though he didn’t speak about his connection with PRESIDENT, Simpson did confirm he was working on new music. “There are [plans for new music]!”, he told us. “Busted are working on new music at the moment and we’ve just been out in LA doing some stuff. It’s a slow process, but we want the next record that Busted put out to be an important one. We don’t want to rush it,” he said. “There’s a bunch of songs written already, and hopefully they’ll come out next year, maybe even the year after.”
“For Fightstar it’s a case of getting everyone into the same orbit,” he added. “Doing that show this year was great because we got together and made a set that we wanted to celebrate the 20 years with. Committing to a full album is obviously a much bigger deal because it takes a lot more time. But I definitely want to do stuff with them again in the future, 100 per cent. I just don’t know when.”
